Peach Blueberry Crumble Cobbler

Georgia peaches are here! Summertime in the deep South comes with the anticipation of ripe, sweet Georgia peaches. Mom’s blueberry crumble cobbler was the climax of peach season. Our delicious fruit-filled cobbler has no gluten or added sugar. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to make and tasty cobbler.

Peach Blueberry Crumble Cobbler

A Healthy Peach Cobbler?

Theres no way around it – fruit pies are essentially delivery systems for fruit flavored sugar syrup. Mom dumped insane amounts of Domino pure cane sugar into her legendary blueberry cobbler. When that sugar syrup is sopped up with the Crisco infused Martha White flour crust – well, that was nirvana! Actually, as a kid I avoided eating the fruit in the pie, opting instead for the blueberry infused crust!

The challenge was how to eliminate the gluten and sweeten our pie without sugar – a two-horned dilemma.

Could we make a healthier version of this classic summer dessert? You bet! Our gluten-free, no sugar added cobbler topped with whipped coconut cream might just be the ticket.

The Sweetener

For alternatives to granulated sugar, most recipes on the web use agave nectar, honey, palm sugar, fruit juices, coconut sap sugar, etc. and etc. Unfortunately, all of these alternatives are nutritionally the same as adding pure cane sugar. Maybe some of these sugars have a slightly lower glycemic index than cane sugar, but eating these sugars will undeniably cause a huge insulin spike and over time lead to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.

So, we needed to rely on the fruit’s natural fructose alone (a stretch) or rely on an artificial sweetener. We decided that the right combination of both the fruit’s natural sugar and the right artificial sweetener would work well.

To extract the natural sugar we macerated the fruit in Swerve (erythritol), our favorite non-sugar sweetener, and then we added additional Swerve to the final pie to reach an acceptable level of sweetness. Our cobbler lends a fairly sweet taste from the balance of the natural fructose and the sweetener without the dreaded glycemic overload.

The Crust

Eliminating the gluten was a much easier task. Today, there are many gluten free flours available, such as almond flour, rice, coconut, arrowroot, sorghum, and the list goes on. We found that almond flour was the best choice for the desired texture and taste of a crumble crust.

Let’s Make a Cobbler

The Pie Filling

We started by macerating 2 pounds of sliced peaches with 1/2 cup of Swerve for about 30-45 minutes. The maceration process draws liquid from the fruit into the bowl creating a naturally sweet liquid and leaving behind a more concentrated and intense flavor in the fruit. A proverbial win-win!

Macerating Peaches

Start Cooking

While the fruit is macerating, preheat the oven to 375 and grease an oven-safe baking dish.

For the filling, first combine 3-4 tablespoons lemon juice, 1/2 the zest from one lemon, 1 tablespoon arrowroot flour, and 1/4 teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg in a separate small bowl making sure to mix well until the arrowroot flour is fully dissolved. (We used the whip attachment to our Cuisinart immersion blender.) Then, stir this mixture into the macerated fruit. Finally, spread the entire fruit mixture evenly into the greased oven-safe baking dish. (We used coconut oil to grease the baking dish.)

Peaches and Berries in Baking dish

Place the baking dish on the middle rack of the preheated oven and cook until fruit is bubbling and well softened – about 30 to 45 minutes.